January 30, 2010
What a crazy week.
I did not attend open mat this past Monday night, as my sister and nephew flew into town Monday afternoon. And by the way, in case anyone out there thinks their kid is cutest ever, they aren't, because my nephew is THE cutest kid EVER.
In lieu of open mat, I did hill repeats and push ups as follows: 2 repeats, 10 push-ups, 2 repeats, 10 push-ups, 1 repeat, 10 push-ups, then two minute rest. I repeated this entire sequence one time. Short, sweet, and to the point.
Tuesday morning I went to class, which was good despite getting popped in the nose and torquing my ankle against a wall. We worked on throws and take-downs, and one of my sparring partners swung his elbow across the front of my face, which unfortunately met with the bridge of my nose. Bloody nose. Excellent! Tuesday night I went to Bikram yoga and sweated out the demons.
Wednesday night, rather Wednesday afternoon, I received a call from my Dad to tell me my grandmother had a stroke and was in the hospital. This is her second stroke in the past year, and she is 90 years old. I was going to cancel my roll Wednesday night, then I thought, why? I 'll be either sitting by a phone feeling crappy or sitting with her feeling frustrated and sad. So I went to class, which was absolutely great fun. My instructor asked me to lead the warm-up. I was happy, as this is a minor honor and it shows the instructor has confidence in you. We did a short technique sequence working on the triangle, which I think may have mentioned, I have been working during every single class. And dear readers, (if there are any) I GOT ONE. Last week I threw it on a new white belt, so that really didn't count. But Wednesday night, I succeeded in applying my triangle on a blue belt. Now, to be fair, she is smaller than me, but she she is lightening fast and her escapes are becoming a force, so I felt pretty good.
I have been working on this one particular move every class for the past two months with a low level of success, so I am happy that I am beginning to be more sensitive to the tiny, tiny, miniscule, shifts in weight leverage that are the bedrock for BJJ. I think I have explained this triangle movement in a previous post; the sweet spot of the movement occurs when I am successful in creating a "push-pull" situation in my opponent (in open guard), thus knocking their center of gravity away. I am then able to shoot one leg over my opponent's shoulder, wrap that leg around their neck, and lock it down on the ankle with my other leg.
So, good class Wednesday night, and one of my favorite types of classes, which is TONS of rounds. We split into weight groups and traded back and forth for 5 minute rounds. I stopped by the hospital to see my grandmother after class. The funny thing about her is that she looks good, even when she is all vim and vinegar and ornery because she hates the hospital, the woman looks good. I felt so bad however, as her speech is a garbled mess and she knows it. Every time she speaks, the words are twisted into a mismatched jumble. The brain is fascinating machine, cross a couple of wires and all of a sudden everything crumbles like a Jenga game.
I did not roll on Thursday night, instead I took dinner to my sister and nephew so we could have some hang out time. Friday afternoon I did a short and deadly CB/KB workout. Two sets of: 5 CB swings to order, followed by 10 CB swings to order and all the way back, 20 KB snatches on each side, 5 KB Turkish get-ups on each side with the "shrimping" movement, finally 12 KB overhead rows on the exercise ball.
Friday night I went to no-gi class which was straight up rip roaring fun. I had a rare and joyous "wow I just did that" moment. I was in the turtle position and my opponent was sprawled on my back. I sat back and started to put my opponent into the guard, catching him surprise, he lost his base, I got the sweep instead, and landed on top in side control. I did the same thing in another match and took my opponent's back. Coolness.
Today I went to Bikram again and actually did the Mantis pose with a modicum of success. I am working toward turning my Mantis into a Scorpion.
The food situation is excellent. I am eating oatmeal or yogurt in the morning with coffee, lunch is rice and whatever vegetable concoction we have cooked during the week, and dinner has been a variety of stir-frys, salads, or vegetable soups. I snack on apples and/or cashews.
A good hard week of training.
I did not attend open mat this past Monday night, as my sister and nephew flew into town Monday afternoon. And by the way, in case anyone out there thinks their kid is cutest ever, they aren't, because my nephew is THE cutest kid EVER.
In lieu of open mat, I did hill repeats and push ups as follows: 2 repeats, 10 push-ups, 2 repeats, 10 push-ups, 1 repeat, 10 push-ups, then two minute rest. I repeated this entire sequence one time. Short, sweet, and to the point.
Tuesday morning I went to class, which was good despite getting popped in the nose and torquing my ankle against a wall. We worked on throws and take-downs, and one of my sparring partners swung his elbow across the front of my face, which unfortunately met with the bridge of my nose. Bloody nose. Excellent! Tuesday night I went to Bikram yoga and sweated out the demons.
Wednesday night, rather Wednesday afternoon, I received a call from my Dad to tell me my grandmother had a stroke and was in the hospital. This is her second stroke in the past year, and she is 90 years old. I was going to cancel my roll Wednesday night, then I thought, why? I 'll be either sitting by a phone feeling crappy or sitting with her feeling frustrated and sad. So I went to class, which was absolutely great fun. My instructor asked me to lead the warm-up. I was happy, as this is a minor honor and it shows the instructor has confidence in you. We did a short technique sequence working on the triangle, which I think may have mentioned, I have been working during every single class. And dear readers, (if there are any) I GOT ONE. Last week I threw it on a new white belt, so that really didn't count. But Wednesday night, I succeeded in applying my triangle on a blue belt. Now, to be fair, she is smaller than me, but she she is lightening fast and her escapes are becoming a force, so I felt pretty good.
I have been working on this one particular move every class for the past two months with a low level of success, so I am happy that I am beginning to be more sensitive to the tiny, tiny, miniscule, shifts in weight leverage that are the bedrock for BJJ. I think I have explained this triangle movement in a previous post; the sweet spot of the movement occurs when I am successful in creating a "push-pull" situation in my opponent (in open guard), thus knocking their center of gravity away. I am then able to shoot one leg over my opponent's shoulder, wrap that leg around their neck, and lock it down on the ankle with my other leg.
So, good class Wednesday night, and one of my favorite types of classes, which is TONS of rounds. We split into weight groups and traded back and forth for 5 minute rounds. I stopped by the hospital to see my grandmother after class. The funny thing about her is that she looks good, even when she is all vim and vinegar and ornery because she hates the hospital, the woman looks good. I felt so bad however, as her speech is a garbled mess and she knows it. Every time she speaks, the words are twisted into a mismatched jumble. The brain is fascinating machine, cross a couple of wires and all of a sudden everything crumbles like a Jenga game.
I did not roll on Thursday night, instead I took dinner to my sister and nephew so we could have some hang out time. Friday afternoon I did a short and deadly CB/KB workout. Two sets of: 5 CB swings to order, followed by 10 CB swings to order and all the way back, 20 KB snatches on each side, 5 KB Turkish get-ups on each side with the "shrimping" movement, finally 12 KB overhead rows on the exercise ball.
Friday night I went to no-gi class which was straight up rip roaring fun. I had a rare and joyous "wow I just did that" moment. I was in the turtle position and my opponent was sprawled on my back. I sat back and started to put my opponent into the guard, catching him surprise, he lost his base, I got the sweep instead, and landed on top in side control. I did the same thing in another match and took my opponent's back. Coolness.
Today I went to Bikram again and actually did the Mantis pose with a modicum of success. I am working toward turning my Mantis into a Scorpion.
The food situation is excellent. I am eating oatmeal or yogurt in the morning with coffee, lunch is rice and whatever vegetable concoction we have cooked during the week, and dinner has been a variety of stir-frys, salads, or vegetable soups. I snack on apples and/or cashews.
A good hard week of training.
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